Kian Gadsby
When discussing the student experience, sport is an element that is often overlooked in favour of academics or social lives.
However, for many students, sport is a cornerstone of their lives. Whether they are competing, watching, or just simply playing socially, it is a fundamental aspect of daily routines, and one that can prove pivotal to the student experience.
In this article, Impact investigated the true influence of sport to the student experience at the University of Nottingham.
This piece is inspired by my story, as I believe that sport enabled me to make friends when I arrived here, and it has definitely enhanced my student experience.
Getting to university without knowing anyone was, frankly, daunting. However, I relaxed after spending my first day watching Manchester City snatch a 2-2 draw against Arsenal with guys who I had never met before.
Some of those people are now my closest friends, and we spent a lot of time in first year watching multiple matches simultaneously on as many screens as we could assemble.
Football served as an initial talking point as it meant that we had something in common, and I am very grateful that sport connected me to my friends.
As time has passed, matches have enabled us to keep in touch. “Do you want to go to the pub and watch the game?” is a message which I regularly receive, and that keeps me in contact with friends and enriches my social life.
Football has also served as an excuse to go around the country and watch matches, as I’ve been to Birmingham, Sheffield and Lincoln on trips with my friends. Those excursions all ended with me meeting up with old friends, or making new ones, and that would not have happened without sport.
A common passion for football has brought and kept us closer together, and it is why so many people love it around the world. Therefore, I feel that sport has had an enormous impact on my Student Experience at the University of Nottingham.
Of course, my experience isn’t universal. As sport has had a different impact on everyone’s university life, I decided to interview a range of students to figure out how important sport truly was to their student experience.
“Football offers me the chance to see my family”
When investigating this issue, one student who I had the opportunity to talk to was Jack Lemming, a second-year economics student from London.
Because he is studying a long way from home, Jack would ordinarily struggle to find time to regularly see his family. However, his family are Nottingham Forest season ticket holders, meaning they come to the midlands to visit him for all home matches and meet him at stadia around the country for away trips.
Football is undoubtedly a fundamental feature of the Lemming household.
When conducting the interview at their house, it was immediately obvious from the plethora of Forest memorabilia that lined the walls that the beautiful game is an integral part of their lives.
With football providing the opportunity for his family to reunite every weekend and spend quality time together doing something they loved, Jack spoke passionately, as he expressed that sport had unquestionably had a positive impact on his student experience.
“Sport has greatly impacted my student experience through following my beloved Nottingham Forest home and away as they secured European football for the first time in a generation.
“Apart from impacting my general mood, supporting the team offers me the chance to see my family every weekend for 90 minutes whether it was Brighton, Newcastle or at home at the City Ground.
“This is important to me, as I get the opportunity to talk to them about things that are going on, which is really beneficial as it helps me to relax and relieve some of the pressures of university life.
“For this reason, sport has had a tremendous impact on my student experience as it has given me the opportunity to see my family on a regular weekly basis, which otherwise would not have occurred.”
What is the Impact on Athletes?
The group of students whose lives revolve around sport the most are student-athletes, as they spend a large proportion of their time training, travelling and competing.
Devoting a huge number of hours to a sport will inevitably have huge effects on their lives as students, but having spoken to members of various sports teams, it’s obvious that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
One athlete interviewed was Media and Spanish student Sam Bunce, who is a key player on the Men’s 1st Futsal team.
Despite suffering an injury early into his time at the University of Nottingham, Sam spoke excitedly about his love for university sport, and he clearly felt that playing futsal had improved his experience at university.
“Continuing futsal at university has helped me develop as a player but more importantly as a person. The social aspect from day one was so valuable to how I felt during the week and how I settled into university life. Regular socials, training, and matches gave me something to look forward to rather than holding back from.”
Whilst sport has clearly played a crucial role in Sam’s student experience, futsal is not the only aspect of Sam’s life. Whilst it may be expected that sport will distract and deter athletes from other elements of university life, Sam feels that sport has benefitted him beyond the pitch.
“Joining futsal and embracing new challenges in the new environment ultimately helped me outside of the sport itself. It gave me the opportunity to enjoy being outside my comfort zone and to be less fearful of doing or joining something completely new elsewhere too.”
From these stories, it becomes immediately apparent that sport is an underrated aspect of the student experience at The University of Nottingham.
However, with a plethora of local teams, leagues or other opportunities to join in and simply become immersed in the action, it is easy to understand why so many consider sport to be important to their lives.
Kian Gadsby
Featured image courtesy of Kian Gadsby. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @officialnffc via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of @uonfutsal via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
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